Sirène | La Sirène avait tes yeux clairs

by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor

Sirène

Language: French (Français)

Our translations: ENG

La Sirène avait tes yeux clairs, 
Tes chers yeux inconstants et vagues,
Tes yeux pâles et sans éclairs, 
Tes yeux de la couleur des vagues. 

Et la Sirène avait ta voix, 
Ta voix troublante d'enfant blonde,
Quand elle attirait autrefois 
Les marins sous la mer profonde.

Et n'avait-elle pas ton cœur, 
Lorsque la perfide adorable
Souriait, de son air moqueur, 
A ces morts couchés sur le sable ?

Confirmed with Jean Lahor, L'Illusion, Paris, Alphonse Lemerre, 1888, page 61.

Note: in the third edition of L'Illusion, published in 1893, there was a typo in stanza 1, line 2, word 4 ("insconstants"). This typo did not appear in the 1888 edition.

Text Authorship:

by Henri Cazalis (1840 - 1909), as Jean Lahor, "Sirène", written 1875, appears in L'Illusion, in 1. Chants de l'Amour et de la Mort, Éd. Alphonse Lemerre, first published 1875 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by François Berthet (1873 - 1956), "Sirène", op. 11 no. 7 [ medium voice and piano ], Paris, Éd. Rouart-Lerolle [sung text not yet checked]
by Robert Ravarin (1890 - 1917), "Sirène", op. 1 (1906) [ high voice and piano ], from Mélodies, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Sebastian Benson Schlesinger (1837 - 1917), "Sirène", op. 76 no. 3 [ voice and piano ], A. Quinzard [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2014-06-12
Line count: 12
Word count: 67